Study on Heat Transfer Performance of Skin Heat Exchanger

Abstract

Cooling technology is facing new challenges with the increase of electronic equipment power onboard aircraft. The traditional heat sink based on high-altitude bleed air does not satisfy this increase of cooling demands. In this article, an air/air-type skin heat exchanger is studied for cooling aircraft electronic equipment. It uses outside high-altitude cold air rather than bleed air as a heat sink. This cooling technology can effectively remove the heat load of high-power electronic devices without greatly increasing aircraft performance penalty. To assess its high-altitude heat transfer performance, an experimental prototype was designed and made. Some experiments were conducted on a ground experimental test. The heat transfer criteria formulas were obtained for both the side air in the skin heat exchanger and its convective heat transfer coefficients. Based on these experimental analyses, the heat transfer performances of the skin heat exchanger in a high-altitude cruise condition are deduced when it is assumed to be installed at an unfavorable position and a favorable position, separately. This work tries to provide a technical support for its future onboard application.

Keywords::

• electronic device cooling
• aircraft skin heat exchanger
• thermal management
• heat transfer
• convective heat transfer coefficient